An independent software vendor (ISV) is a business term for companies specializing in making or selling specialized software products, usually for niche markets comprising, for example, real estate brokers, scheduling for healthcare personnel, barcode scanning, and stock maintenance. Specialized software products generally offer higher productivity to organizations than more generalized software such as basic spreadsheet or database packages.
Most large software companies offer special programs for ISVs. Consequently, an ISV may make and sells software products that run on one or more computer hardware or operating system platforms made by the large software companies. The large software companies that make the platforms, encourage and lend support to ISVs, often with special “business partner” programs. In general, the more applications that run on a platform, the more value it offers to customers. Of course, platform manufacturers make applications as well, but do not have the resources and, in many cases, the special knowledge required to make them all.